Hearing Your Words
AUDIO
Ensemble of the North; Patrick McDonough, conductor
DURATION
2’35”
INSTRUMENTATION
SATB (div.) a cappella
POET
Edna St. Vincent Millay
YEAR COMPOSED
2005
COMMISSIONER
Ensemble of the North
THIS IS A MOVEMENT FROM:
Sonnets of the Fatal Interview
ORDERING SCORES
This work is published as a digital score with a performance license. The pricing is based on the number of singers in a choir:
- $45: up to 20 singers
- $90: 21-50 singers
- $135: 51-79 singers
- $180: 80+ singers
- Click on the link to email Inkjar Publishing Company
- Specify the number of singers and the name of your choir.
- An invoice will be sent to you via PayPal.
- Once payment is received, you will be emailed the licensed PDF within three business days (excluding weekends and holidays).
PERUSAL SCORE
Click here
Please note there are rewrites made to the score that aren’t reflected in the audio.
TEXT
Hearing your words, and not a word among them
Tuned to my liking, on a salty day
When inland woods were pushed by winds that flung them
Hissing to leeward like a ton of spray,
I thought how off Matinicus the tide
Came pounding in, came running though the Gut,
While from the Rock the warning whistle cried,
And children whimpered and the doors blew shut;
There in the autumn when the men go forth,
With slapping skirts the island women stand
In gardens stripped and scattered, peering north,
With dahlia tubers dripping from the hand:
The wind of their endurance, driving south,
Flattened your words against your speaking mouth.
-
HELIOS • 4’30” • 2 tpts/flugelhorns, hn, tbn, tba
PROGRAM NOTES
In Greek mythology, Helios was the god of the sun. His head wreathed in light, he daily drove a chariot drawn by four horses (in some tales, the horses are winged; in others, they are made of fire) across the sky. At the end of each day’s journey, he slept in a golden boat that carried him on the Okeanos River (a fresh water stream that encircled the flat earth) back to his rising place. The cyclic journey of Helios is depicted in this short work for brass quintet. The first half is fast-paced and very energetic, while the second half is slow and serene, representing day and night.
-S.G.